Race, Gender, Imperialism and American History - Essay Example

?Race, Gender, Imperialism and American History Introduction: The late nineteenth century marked a significant period in American history owing to a series of events that unfolded during that period - the American Civil War being one of the momentous ones till date that helped in the abolition of slavery and hence brought a halt to the rampant racism to a considerable extent. Although various laws have been abolished and enacted over the years to eliminate racism in the country against people of all races, the social evil continues to plague the nation even today. The domestic and foreign policies of United States are rooted in the country’s history which is riddled with racial inequality, gross misappropriation of social justice, and devoid of any ideals which are today, granted to all human beings - that of liberty, equality, justice and most of all human dignity. Historical accounts make it abundantly clear that it is the combination of the three key factors i.e. race, gender, and sexuality that has helped shape some of the major domestic and foreign policies in the United States. This essay looks at how the politics of race, gender, and sexuality contributed in shaping the domestic and foreign policies in America as we know today by exploring the American history and through a comprehensive study of its culture and the identities of the people of color which greatly influenced the country's overall political framework. Race: Causes & History Racism first emerged in the 16th and more specifically during the 17th century when Europeans began enslaving people from Africa as well as the new world. During this period however racism meant that 'certain people who were defined as non-Europeans find themselves ruled and governed by Europeans'. Causes: The key motivation behind it was grounded in economics driven by the motive of profit maximization. The laws that encouraged racism and the racial segregation of people of color were hence developed to enable the whites to use the non-whites as commodities / resources that helped them in achieving their profit objectives. Most of these slaves were hired by the whites to work on plantations since ownership of slaves was regarded as the greatest form of wealth (Racism - A History). The underlying factors that led to the rampant racist attitudes towards the people of color were the inherent fear and apprehension regarding these 'foreign' races. Blacks, for instance, were perceived as half humans and half animals (Racism: A History) while the Native American tribes were perceived as brutes who kill defenseless women and children (Baigell 4). The concept of “race” during a fair part of the 19th century was defined strictly with regard to the skin color and the individuals were socially categorized in accordance with their respective race with Europeans (whites) occupying the top spot. However, in 1922 in the case of Ozawa v United States the courts ruled that 'the test of race afforded by the color of the skin of each individual is impracticable as that differs greatly among persons of the same race, even among Anglo-Saxons, ranging by imperceptible gradations from the fair blond to the swarthy brunette, the latter being darker than many of the lighter hued persons of the brown or yellow races'. Thus suggesting that racial boundaries cannot be bound by skin color alone and hence cannot be used to racially divide people (Lopez 195). You need a transitional sentence that connects this paragraph to the next. So even though the law exists, racism still prevails at an institutional level. The legal and judicial system in the U.S. had time and again used the law as a tool of racial segregation. One such instance is the case of the manner in which the U.S. used the law to prevent mass migration of Chinese workers to California during the gold rush. The state of California passed its first anti-Chinese laws during the 1850s including the levying of a special tax targeted at the Chinese to dissuade them from flooding American shores in hordes (Bill Moyers Special: Becoming American- The Chinese Experience). A political party led by an anti-Chinese Labor leader from California, Denis Kearney launched a nationwide campaign against the Chinese immigrants by capitalizing heavily on the anti-Chinese sentiment and appealing to the working class voters. The persistent efforts however led to the submission of about eleven different bills seeking Chinese exclusion, in 1881. The Chinese Exclusion Act was finally passed and became a law on May 6, 1882, putting a permanent stop to Chinese immigrants. It was the first time in the history of United States that such a law seeking active prevention or banning of a group from permanently entering the country was passed and was a first of its kind in the history of anti-immigration acts in America that was driven solely by race. The act legally justified racial discrimination that singled out people from a certain ethnic group (Bill Moyers Special: Becoming American- The Chinese Experience). If you keep the paragraph about Mexican Americans you need to create a transitional sentence that connects these two paragraphs. Deleted the paragraph about Mexican Americans, as suggested by your teacher. Also I was about to cross the page limit, and it might affect your grades, so I thought it better to remove it entirely than risk losing your grades. Reasons for: “Why do we still have racism?” More recently the mass incarceration of blacks in particular is indicative of the imbalance of racial justice in America. Michelle Alexander describes the drug on war as the new Jim Crow since "like Jim Crow (and slavery), mass incarceration operates as a tightly networked system of laws, policies, customs, and institutions that operate collectively to ensure the subordinate status of a group defined largely by race (Alexander 3)”. Similar racial segregation was observed post the unfortunate 9/11 terror attacks engineered by Islamic terrorists. The laws were made stricter towards the Muslim community, specifically separating the Arab and Muslim populations causing detention and deporting of thousands of Arabs, Muslims as well as South Asians in the process. A special Congressional passage of the USA Patriot Act was passed enabling the government to increase surveillance and extra searches aimed at Muslim, Arab, South Asian and other Middle Eastern people labeling and describing them as un-American (Alsultany 594). The examples discussed above serve to emphasize and substantiate the historical findings in support of the argument that demonstrated the manner in which "law serves not only to reflect but to solidify social prejudice, making law a prime instrument in the construction and reinforcement of racial subordination" (Lopez 192). Gender & Sexuality: Gender, similar to race, has historically garnered considerable attention within political spheres. White supremacy and domination of whites over the people of color in the late 19th century and the "institutionalization of restrictive attitudes towards sex and gender roles within the fledgling national security state" post 1945 contributed in shaping gender based domestic policies in favor of the White males (Smith 310). Causes & Reasons: The right to vote given to black men intensified extreme violence and hatred against the black race by the whites during the 1890s, thus highlighting the close association and impact of gender, race and sex on politics. In 1892 Ida B. Wells explained this violence as resonating the popular White American sentiment that was completely against the freedom afforded to the Blacks under the Civil Rights Law. The Southerners claimed that the right to vote given to blacks empowered the notion of black manhood, giving them immense power and right to social equality which in turn would lead to mixed marriages and increased rape of physical assaults against the white women. The laws that protected and ensured racial equality were hence translated by some as granting of political power to the blacks causing the "white ideas about the dangers of black male sexuality" to reach unprecedented levels of violence and hostility against the race (Hodes 416-17). The development in transport and communication systems in the country in antebellum America during the early stages of industrialization stirred up the existing socio-economic dynamics of the American family structure. The status of women, who were historically perceived as a "prime vessel of national morality and virtue" was challenged by feminist movements who increasingly sought to question their highly restrictive roles - that of a helper confined within the four walls of their homes. Women in increasing numbers sought to change their status pushing for social change and equal rights. The attitudes towards sex and gender roles during 1945 were highly restrictive (Smith 309) with women mostly relegated to secondary status and gender inequality was at its peak. However post the Second World War these boundaries began to blur with the emergence of the concept of 'heterosexuality' and the change in family structures and the emergence of nuclear families. These changes were further fuelled by the emergence of gays and lesbians who faced severe backlash and censure from the government in all aspects of public service including the military as well as law enforcements (Smith 314). Gender roles were strictly defined and the concepts of morality, virtue, and purity particularly with regard to women were held in high regard in the American society. Social discussions of any matter related to sex was strictly prohibited and looked down upon, and the rules were even stricter for women. The skewed gender roles and the apparent imbalance between the two genders caused wide scale debates and clashes between the proponents and opponents of the double standard and the conspiracy of silence in the progressive era. Anti-prostitution drives were organized to push the government from prohibiting and legally encouraging prostitution. This movement culminated with the implementation of the Mann Act of 1911 (Burnham 887). Example: Sexuality & the domestic and foreign policies of the U.S. The United States perceives itself as a highly masculine nation which prides itself over its historical legacy of great power and strength used to defend and at times attack other nations based on the perception of threats to its national security. The U.S. has a strong tendency, as is evident from its historical pursuits of disciplining 'rogue' nation states that remotely threatens to disrupt the peace and security of the nation and its citizens. The control and military might displayed by the United States in countries like Iraq, Afghanistan and the likes that have posed threats to its national stability illustrates the utility of gender in its foreign policies. According to Dean (2001) it was the fear of appearing too soft on communism that led the then President John F. Kennedy to "insist on masculine toughness in his policy towards the Soviet Union" (Hattunen 431). Conclusion: The discussions included above help in elaborating the imperialistic orientation of the United States domestic and foreign policies and its deeply rooted associations with the events that unfolded over the course of history. These events include the Civil Rights Movement that revolutionized the country's policy towards people of color and granted equal rights and opportunity to seek justice to the previously marginalized population for the first time in history. The nation formed and forwarded many of its foreign policies based on its deep seated sense of supremacy which partly stemmed from the racial superiority and partly from its military might. Post the civil war the country launched arguments based on race, gender, as well as social Darwinism to support its political agendas. The various wars waged by America on other nations such as Cuba, Vietnam, Hawaii and more recently Iraq substantiate the complex inter-relation between the nation's domestic and foreign policies. The American nation took giant strides from being a highly offensive racist policies that deliberately sought to oppress, marginalize and even ban people from certain races from setting foot on American soil to its relatively liberal immigration policies during the 21st century that not only open its borders to foreign immigrants but welcomed them, drastically redefining its stance on cultural tolerance. References: Alexander, Michelle. "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness" New Press, 2012. Alsultany, Evelyn. "Selling American Diversity and Muslim American Identity through Nonprofit Advertising Post-9/11". American Quarterly, vol. 59 (3): p. 593-622, 2007. Baigell, Matthew. "Race, Religion: Images of Manifest Destiny". Smithsonian Studies in American Art, vol. 4 (3/4): p. 2-21, (Summer- Autumn, 1990) Bill Moyers special: Becoming American: The Chinese experience" Gold Mountain Dreams" Burnham, John. "The Progressive Era Revolution in American Attitudes Toward Sex" The Journal of American History, Vol. 59 (4): p. 885-908, 1973. Halttunen, Karen. "A Companion to American Cultural History". Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2008. Print. Hodes, Martha. "The Sexualisation of Recontruction Politics: White Women and Black Men in the South after the Civil War". Journal of the History of Sexuality, vol. 3 (3): p. 402-417, (Jan 1993). Lopez, Haney. White By Law: The Legal Construction of Race. New York University Press, 1996 Smith, Geoffrey. "National Security and Personal Isolation: Sex, Gender, and Disease in the Cold-War United States". The International History Review, Vol. 14 (2): p. 307-337, 1992. Read More